Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) has posted its schedule for the 2012-13 season. There are 10 Tier 1 or Grand Slam events on the schedule, which is balanced between events in 2012 and in 2013 with five in each. There's also a Tier 3 event - the traditional Wilson Tour for Hope in Cincinnati.

The WPRO season begins in late August with the Ektelon Texas Open in Dallas. Then there will be a break of over a month before the US Open in Minneapolis in early October.

In November, the WPRO will play in Mexico, which will be its first event outside the USA since September 2010, when they were in Cali, Columbia, and two weeks later in Seattle before ending the year with the Christmas Classic in Arlington, Virginia.

Two of the five events in the second half of the season are new and they are the first two events of 2013. The WPRO will begin the new year with the Winter Freeze tournament in Dayton, Ohio in early January and then in late February they'll be in Overland Park, Kansas for the Winter Classic.

The WPRO season will end with the Battle at the Alamo in San Antonio in April, the SCS Title and Escrow Pro-Am in Herndon, Virginia and finally with the Ektelon Nationals Presented by Penn in Fullerton, California. The WPRO was in Fullerton this past season, but only as a Tier 3 event. Next year they plan to have a Tier 1 event in Fullerton.

Of the eight Tier 1 or Grand Slam events this past season, seven of them are on the schedule for next season. The only exception is the Denver event, but three events have taken its place: in Mexico, Dayton and Overland Park.

All in all the schedule represents a nice progression for the WPRO from what seems to be a stable base of support. The spacing of events might be a bit better, as there are no events in September or March and multiples in November and May. But that's not something that's entirely within the WPRO's control.

We look forward to the next WPRO season, which is only a little over two months away.